LOCAL GROWN LUCERNE SEED.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 600, 6 September 1913, Page 2

LOCAL GROWN LUCERNE SEED.

The greater portion of the lucerne seed used in New Zealand is imported. Commenting on this fact in the Department's Journal, the Government Biologist, Mr A. H. Cockayne, points out the superiority of locally grown and acclimatised seed. It has. he Bays, been amply demon strated that ' the best results have invariably been secured when locally grown and acclimatised seed has been used, though excellent results have been attained from seed acciimatised'in Australia. A great deal of the seed sold in New Zealand is of Asiatic origin, and the experience with this has not. been at all satisfactory. Seed from that quarter is not held in high repute in other countries into which it has been imported pointing- to the fact, that it is necessary to produce lucerne seed m the country where it is to b3 used. So far in the Dominion the only local seed used to any extent is that harvested in the Marlborough district. Evidence has just reached me that the production of lucerne seed is now claiming attention in other districts of the Dominion. Messrs Williams Bros., have demonstrated in the Poverty Bay district that lucerne geed can be produced successfully in that province and at such a rate that ■it-may prove a'highly profitable under-

taking. Off six and a-half acr«a of j ground they have secured over two j tons of cleaned seed.or, roughly, <i[)o)b ! per acre. A f the market price oi' • lucerne seed —£90 per ton tins works out at a grops rstnrn of £27 per acre. The original seed came from the Argentine, and an examination of the plants shows the form t.i KDpoximate closely to that known as Hunter river, the foliage being exceptionally broad leaved. The lucerne was cut in October and then shut up for seed, being harvested during the middle of March From this it will be j seen that the production of seed was not the only source of revenue from the crop. This return of £-7 per acre is. of course, an exceptionally big one, but it indicates clearly the great possibilities in front of iucerne seed crowing in those districts where the climate is a suitable one.